Mary McDonnell had a brief spate of success in films in the early 1990s before disappearing from the scene and reemerging recently on the television series "Battlestar Galactica." First she came to major attention in "Dances with Wolves," for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and then she graduated to the lead category in 1992 for her performance in "Passion Fish."
McDonnell gives a lovely performance as a bratty soap opera actress who's confined to a wheelchair after an accident, and who must rely on a no-nonsense nurse (Alfre Woodard, lovely as well) for help. The film follows all of the requisite trajectories you'd expect from a movie like this, and the fish that give the film its name serve a heavy-handed symbolic purpose that seemed too much for me even at the time (and I was only seventeen). But the film does have a relaxed indie vibe to it, and I can see why people like it.
Grade: B+
McDonnell gives a lovely performance as a bratty soap opera actress who's confined to a wheelchair after an accident, and who must rely on a no-nonsense nurse (Alfre Woodard, lovely as well) for help. The film follows all of the requisite trajectories you'd expect from a movie like this, and the fish that give the film its name serve a heavy-handed symbolic purpose that seemed too much for me even at the time (and I was only seventeen). But the film does have a relaxed indie vibe to it, and I can see why people like it.
Grade: B+